“If one’s words are not better than silence, one should keep silent.”

“Fear is the only darkness.”

“Never assume that, because a man has no eyes, he cannot see.”

“I hear the water, and the birds.”

“Do you hear you own heartbeat? Or the grasshopper that is at your feet?”

“Old man, how is it that you hear these things?”

“Young man, how is it that you do not?”

“How long have you been here?”

“A very long time, sir.”

“How long?”

“Not long.”

“To hit a target…is to exercise the inner strength. Indeed, there are two kinds of strength. The outer strength is obvious. It fades with age, and succumbs to sickness. Then there is the ch’i, the inner strength. Everyone possesses it too. But it is indeed much more difficult to develop. The inner strength lasts through every heat and every cold. Through old age, and beyond.”

“What happens in a man’s life is already written. A man must move through life as his destiny wills.”

“Yes, yet each man is free to live as he chooses. Though they seem opposite, both are true.”

“Development of the mind can be achieved only when the body has been disciplined. To accomplish this, the Ancients have taught us to imitate God’s creatures. From the crane, we learn grace and self-control. The snake teaches us suppleness and rhythmic endurance. The preying mantis teaches us speed, and patience. And from the tiger, we learn tenacity and power, and from the dragon, we learn to ride the wind. All creatures, the low and the high, are one with Nature. No life is insignificant. If we have the wisdom to learn, all may teach us their virtues. Between the fragile beauty of the preying mantis, and the fire and passion of the winged dragon, there is no discord. Between the supple silence of the snake, and the eagle’s claws, there is only harmony. As no two elements of Nature are in conflict, so, when we perceive the ways of Nature, we remove conflict within ourselves, and discover a harmony of body and mind in accord with the flow of the Universe.”

“What is the best way to deal with force?”

“As we prize peace and quiet above victory, there is a simple and preferred method: run away. Perceive the way of Nature, and no force of man can harm you. Do not meet a wave head on; avoid it. You do not have to stop force. It is easier to redirect it. Learn more ways to preserve, rather than destroy. Avoid rather than check. Check rather than hurt. Hurt rather than maim. Maim rather than kill. All life is precious, nor can any be replaced.”

“Men do not beat drums before they hunt for tigers.”

“To fight for yourselves is right. To die vainly without hope of winning is the act of stupid men.”

“Never forget that a priest’s life is a simple one, and must remain free of ambition.”

“Have you no ambition?”

“Only one…”

“That is not such a great ambition.”

“But it is ambition, nonetheless. Who among us is without flaw?”

“Remember always, the wise man walks with his head bowed: humble like the dust.”

“Sometimes, one must cut off a finger to save a hand.”

“A shao-lin monk does not sell himself for a handful of rice.”

“The taking of a life does no one honor.”

“The rabbit feels rage, the tiger pity, the dragon, pain. All creatures, the low and the high, are one with Nature. No life is insignificant. If we have the wisdom to learn, all may teach us their virtues. Life sustains life, and all living creatures need nourishment. Yet, with wisdom, the body learns to sustain in ways that all may live.”

“Master, do we seek victory in contention?”

“Seek rather, not to contend.”

“Shall we not then be defeated?”

“We know that where there is no contention, there is neither defeat nor victory. The supple willow does not contend against the storm, yet it survives.”

“Weakness prevails over strength. Gentleness conquers. Become the calm and restful breeze that tames the violent sea.”

“Master, our bodies are prey to many needs: hunger, thirst, the need for love.”

“In one lifetime, a man knows many pleasures: a mother’s smile in waking hours, a young woman’s intimate, searing touch, and the laughter of grandchildren in the twilight years. To deny these in ourselves, is to deny that which makes us one with Nature.”

“Shall we then seek to satisfy these needs?’

“Only acknowledge them, and satisfaction will follow. To suppress a truth is to give it force beyond endurance.”

“I am alone.”

“You hear the flock of birds flying overhead? You hear the fish? The beetle? In this crowded place, you feel alone? Which of us is the most blind?”

“To know Nature is to put oneself in perfect harmony with the Universe. Heaven and Earth are one, so must we seek a discipline of mind and body within ourselves.”

“The cobra seeks to fix the eye of the bird before it strikes. In that moment of looking at each other, each accepts his role, predator and prey. Fear creates the victim. Yet, something in the bird makes it seek the eye of the cobra: a wish to die.”

“Master, what endures?”

“The sun endures. The moon endures. Life endures.”

“ Yet, the life of this young man is ended. He was younger than I am. No daughter will weep for him, no son remains to sow his seed.”

“It is said the leaf honors the tree, yet when the leaf falls, the tree trembles.”

“You speak of the past.”

“The present is rooted in the past. It is through these roots we draw nourishment and strength.”

“Master, of mans roots, which is the stronger?”

“It is a Shao-lin belief that the paternal line controls.”

“What is a man without roots?’

“What is a tree without roots? The deeper into the earth the roots reach, the stronger the tree. Seek to discover your paternal roots then, for it is this thread which holds you to the past, and binds you to the future, to fix your place for all time in Eternity.”

“Sometimes it is eyes that blind a man.”

“How can this be?”

“Because he can see, he does not look. Is a bird only the color his plumage?”

“None should think so.”

“To be at one with the Universe is to know Bird, Sun, Cloud. How much shall a man lose, if he then loses his eyes?”

“To thank with words is to cheapen the gift.”

“Hunger is everywhere. Is it better to let the infant die, than force it to live?”

“All life is sacred, thus the joining together of man and woman is always honored; apart, there is no life. But from such union, life may proceed.”

“Then life must be always defended.”

“The thorn defends the rose. It harms only those who would steal the blossom from the plant.”

“I am in your debt.”

“No more than the leaf owes the root: in water and sunlight, both grow together.”

“The life within you is a gift of beauty. A child cannot be made ugly by the unhappiness that begins it.”

“I know about war. It is a word men use to clothe the nakedness of their killing.”

“Is injury wrought by oneself?”

“No, Grasshopper.”

“Then by another?”

“No.”

“Then by oneself and another?”

“Did your eye meet your own fist?”

“Then shall I seek ways to repay?”

“”What is the debt?”

“My suffering.”

“Vengeance is a water vessel with a hole; it carries nothing but the promise of emptiness.”

“Shall I then repay injury always with kindness?”

“Repay injury with justice and forgiveness, but kindness always with kindness.”

“Fear is the enemy, trust is the armor.”

“But knowing not what will happen, am I not wise to be afraid?”

“He who conquers himself is the greatest warrior. Do what must be done with a docile heart.”

“Master, how can I know if this is possible for me?”

“Listen for the color of the sky; look for the sound of the hummingbird’s wing; search the air for the perfume of ice on a hot day. If you have found these things, you will know.”

“Grasshopper, what troubles you?”

“I am ashamed.”

“To feel shame for no cause is a waste. To feel shame for a cause is also a waste, for you must rather spend time correcting that of which you are ashamed.”

“Master, I woke last night, and, seeing nothing, hearing nothing, yet I was afraid.”

“Of what?”

“Death.”

“He who knows how to live need not fear death. He can walk without fear of rhino or tiger. He will not be wounded in battle.”

“How can this be?”

“In him, a rhino can find no place to thrust his horn, a tiger, no place to use his claws, and weapons, no place to pierce.”*

“Why is this so?”

“Because a man who knows how to live has no place for death to enter!”

“Before we wake, we cannot know that what we dream does not exist; before we die, we cannot know if death is not the greatest joy!”

“To hate is like drinking salt water: your thirst grows worse…I have seen the silk worm. It spins a thread, thinking itself to be safe, but it is but a tomb. Hate is a tomb you weave. It will not save you from your suffering.”

“Is it good to seek the past, Master? Does it not rob the present?”

“If a man dwells on the past, then he robs the present. But if a man ignores the past, he may rob the future. The seeds of our destiny are nurtured by the roots of our past.”

“Expect the unexpected.”

“If, while building a house, a carpenter strikes a nail, and it proves faulty by bending, does the carpenter lose faith in all nails, and stop building his house?”

“Then we are required to trust, even if we are often reminded of the existence of evil.”

“Deal with evil through strength, but affirm the good in man through trust. In this way, we are prepared for evil, but we encourage good.”

“And is good our great reward for trusting?”

“In striving for an ideal, we do not seek rewards, yet trust does, sometimes, bring with it a great reward, even greater than good.”

“What is greater than good?”

“Love.”

“Those who value freedom most, must sometimes choose to lose it.”

“To be alone without one to love is a waste of the body, but to be not alone without one to love is a waste of the soul.”

“What do you feel?”

“Nothing.”

“What do you feel?”

“Uncomfortable.”

“The mind, the body, and the spirit are one. When the body expresses the desires of the mind and the spirit, then the body is in tune with Nature. The act is pure, and there is no shame.”

“And what is love?”

“Love is harmony, even in discord.”

“Love born of betrayal is better lost than lived.”

“Where does your pebble walk to, Grasshopper?”

“It walks. Its journey is to nowhere.”

“Each journey begins, and also ends.”

“Then the ending is the bottom of the pool.”

“Does not the pebble, entering the water, begin fresh journeys?”

“It seems unceasing.”

“Such is the journey through life: it begins, it ends, yet fresh journeys go forth. Father begets son, who becomes in turn, father, who begets son.”

“Then the roots I have are me, and I am they.”

“Seek first to know your own journey’s beginning and end. Seek then the other journeys of which you are a close part. But in this seeking, know patience. Wear that traveler’s cloak, which shelters and permits you to endure.”

“Often in life, you will come upon the many pillars of violence.”

“May not a man, one with Nature, seeing such pillars, avoid them?”

“Other men stumble in the way. They go in idle search for peace.”

“Must I then tumble down these pillars?”

“Seek always peace, where no path for the footsteps of others, unless the soul is endangered. We are all linked by our souls; to endanger one endangers all.”

“And if thus endangered, Master?”

“In such times, the soul must be the warrior.”

“Each journey of a man crosses this path, and each man sees death in his own mirror.”

“What the eye sees disappears with a blink, or a wandering puff of breath. Where there was light, the eye denied sees nothing. Watch.”

“My eye is denied; no light, no candle. Only nothing.”

“That is what the eye sees. What the soul sees cannot be denied.”

“Will not the soul, too, see nothing, when Death blinks its eye?”

“No. The soul sees always.”

“Yet the body dies.”

“Does the Sun die?”

“It does not shine at night.”

“It shines somewhere. You do not see it.”

“It does not end. The journey goes on, from one time to another. Nothing dies that was ever something.”

“Discipline your body, that you may find a greater power.”

“But Master, what greater power is there?”

“Those who surrender themselves, find inner strength.”

“Will this protect me more, than could my arms and legs?”

“When the heart knows no danger, no danger exists. When the soul becomes the warrior, all fear melts, as the snowflake that falls upon your hand.”

“Master, how does one find the strength within himself?”

“By being one with all that is without himself.”

“Yet these sometimes contend.”

“When fire meets ice, which prevails?”

“Ice.”

“Yet in dying, does not the ice, becoming water, also die?”

“For the fire died.”

“That prevails, which refuses to know the power of the other. Where fear is, does not danger also live? And where fear is not, does not danger also die? Where the tiger and the man are two, he may die. Yet where the tiger and the man are one, there is no fear, there is no danger; for what creature, one with Nature, will attack itself?”

“Be yourself, and never fear thus to be naked to the eyes of others. Yet, know that men so often mask themselves; that what is simple is rarely understood. The dust of Truth swirls, and seeks its own cracks of entry, and a tree, falling in a forest without ears to hear, makes no sound, yet it falls.”

“When I was a boy, I fell into a hole in the ground, and I was broken, and could not climb out. I might have died there, but a stranger came along and saved me. He said it was his obligation; that for help he had once received he must, in return, help ten others, each of whom would then help ten others, so that good deeds would spread out, like the ripples from a pebble in a pond.”

“The best charioteers do not push ahead. The best fighters do not make displays of anger. The wisest antagonist is he who wins without engaging in battle.”

“But Master, is this not a contradiction: to train the body thus, yet shun anger and battle?”

“This is the power of not contending. It is how the weak overcome the strong.”

“The hands, Grasshopper, and the eyes and tongue of touch. Through them, a man may reach out and see another’s feelings, or speak his own.”

“Is it not sad, Master, that the hands of a man may strike a blow, as well as caress?”

“Pain and pleasure are like two bells side by side, and the voice of each makes a trembling in the other.”

“Are pain and pleasure, then, so alike?”

“Are the eyes and the tongue alike? We see the butterfly, and an ugly wound; and the same tongue that screams also laughs.”

“What do I know…as compared to the knowledge of experts. Ask me knowledge of what I know; how to overcome those much larger than yourself, or how weak are those who bellow their strength like the charging bull. Such things I would teach you. The teacher is as water to the soil. He cannot grow a pomegranate from a mustard seed.”

“In his own time, each man finds a place to stand.”

“In the pond, there are some lotuses which stand above the water, and though their roots feed, they are themselves untouched by it. Some others have risen only to the water’s level, and others are still under water.”

“Shall I seek to measure these differences, Master, that I may treat them differently? Each according to his growth?”

“Examine the flower: is not the flower, in each position, yet a flower?”

“Shall I then treat each man the same?”

“As far as possible, without surrender, be on good terms with all.”

“Yet, the flower beneath the water knows not the Sun; other men, not knowing me, will find me hard to understand.”

“Accept the ways of others; respect first your own.”

“The scissors cut the paper, the paper cover the rock, the rock crushes the scissors.”

“Is not playing a child’s game a waste of time?”

“In games, children teach, sometimes more than books. Come, instruct an old man, and yourself!”

“Rock crushes scissors.”

“Look beyond the game, as you look beneath the surface of the pool to see its depths.”

“Each, in turn, conquers the other. There is no stronger or weaker.”

“This is the harmony of Nature, and not a waste of time.”

“I will treasure this lesson, Master.”

“I have three treasures which I hold and keep: the first is mercy, for from mercy comes courage; the second is frugality, from which comes generosity to others; the third is humility, for from it comes leadership.”

“Strange treasures…How shall I hold them and keep them? Memory?”

“No Grasshopper, not in memory! But in your deeds!”

“A good soldier is not violent; a fighter is not angry; a victor is not vengeful.”

“Master, how may I walk a peaceful path, when the world is seldom peaceful?”

“Peace lies not in the world, Grasshopper, but in the man who walks the path.”

“But in my path may be men not filled with peace.”

“Then seek a different path.”

“And if, at each turn, appear those who would be violent, and not love peace?”

“To reach Perfection, a man must develop equally compassion and wisdom.”

“But Master, how do I not contend with the man that would contend with me?”*

“In the heart that is one with Nature, though the body contends, there is no violence; and in the heart that is not one with Nature, though the body be at rest, there is always violence. Be, therefore, like the prow of a boat; it cleaves the water, yet it leaves in its wake water unbroken.”

“Look at the world you live in, and this pool of fish. There are twelve fish; twelve worlds.”

“But only one pool.”

“Many. The one you see, the one I see, and the world of each. The world you live in is mysterious, exciting, unknown, and mine is older, familiar, and calm. You will never know my world, or I yours.”

“Never?”

“Can you see with my eyes, think with my mind?”

“But Master, you are one with the Universe. So am I.”

“We are one, yet we are not the same. Ten million living things have as many different worlds. Do not see yourself as the center of the Universe, wise and good and beautiful. Seek rather wisdom, goodness and beauty, that you may honor them everywhere.”

“You cannot put out water with fire. Stones will not break chains.”

“Where is evil, in the rat, whose nature it is to steal grain, or in the cat, whose nature it is to kill the rat?”

“The rat steals, yet for him, the cat is evil.”

“And to the cat, the rat.”

“Yet Master, surely one of them is evil.”

“The rat does not steal; the cat does not murder. Rain falls, the stream flows, a hill remains. Each acts according to its nature.”

“Then is there no evil for man? Each man tells himself that what he does is good, at least for himself.”

“Grasshopper, a man may tell himself many things, but is a man’s Universe made only of himself?”

“If a man hurts me, and I punish him, perhaps he will not hurt another.”

“And if you do nothing?”

“He will believe he may do as he wishes.”

“Perhaps. Or perhaps he will learn that some men receive injury, but return kindness.”

“If you plant rice, rice will grow; if you plant fear, fear will grow.”

“The cobweb is made of silken thread so fine, a puff of breath destroys it, yet to the spider, it is a secure haven.”

“Still to me only a cobweb.”

“When the wind blows, a feather dances in its wake.”

“But the feather, much weaker than the wind, can do no other.”

“Is this the way of men?”

“There are strong and weak.”

“You do not see. Which is stronger: these boards, or your arm?”

“The boards.”

“Strike the boards, using your arm as a weapon.”

“Yet the boards, resisting, do not endure.”

“Can the weaker be the stronger?”

“See the way of life as a stream: a man floats and his way is smooth. The same man, turning to fight upstream, exhausts himself. To be one with the Universe, each must find his true path, and follow it.”

“Master, the silent one! He is not one of us, yet he remains.”

“The river seeks its own level. It will not fight the rock, it flows around it. The rock becomes a refuge in the river.”

“For here he is understood. What if he were outside?”

“Is there an outside? Who understands the silent one, more than a sparrow or a kid? Though Nature has clouded his mind and silenced his tongue, and twisted his body, it gave a magic to his hands. This the creatures know. Is it not a gift more precious than fame or beauty, or the riches of a king?”

Long ago, Tuan Tcho dreamed that he was a butterfly. He was very joyful as a butterfly, well pleased with his lot, his aims fulfilled. He knew nothing of Tcho, the man, but shortly he awoke, and found himself again to be Tuan Tcho; and he could not tell whether as Tcho he had dreamed he was a butterfly, or whether as a butterfly he had dreamed he was Tcho.

“Master, we are taught that the most important gift of our nature is the reaching out to one another.”

“To say and to listen. To teach what we know truly to those who do not know. To send peaceful thoughts over the bridge of words.”

“Yet I am to speak only when spoken to.”

“Reach out, yet be wary of what you allow yourself to grasp. Go now, Grasshopper. Guard, above all things, the purity of your vision.”

“To a flea, even the sound of a grasshopper is like thunder.”

“Each waking moment is as a rung on an endless ladder: each step we take is built on what has gone before.”

“When you cease to strive to understand, then you will know without understanding.”

“Strike each flame within the width of a hand from the wick. In this way, the flame is snapped out, yet the candle is not touched.”

“What is the purpose of so difficult a blow?”

“Discipline. That you may strike with such strength, yet in one place, and no more.”

“Master, I am troubled. We learn to make powerful the force of our bodies, yet we are taught reverence all against whom we may use such force.”

“When your life is threatened, or the innocent life of another, you will be prepared to defend them.”

“Being thus prepared, better than others, shall I not always stand and fight?”

“Ignore the insulting tongue. Duck the provoking blow. Run from the assault of the strong.”

“Are these not the actions of a coward?”

“The wild boar runs from the tiger, knowing that each, being armed by Nature with deadly strength, may kill the other. Running, he saves his own life, and that of the tiger. This is not cowardice, it is the love of life.”

“Master, are you never lonely here?”

“Do you feel loneliness?”

“No, but I do not understand why, denied the experience of so many things other men desire, I do not.”

“Man, like the animals, is meant to live together with others like himself, but the meaning of belonging to such a group is found in the comfort of silence, and the companionship of solitude.”

“Life is a corridor, and death is merely a door.”

“In time, you will learn to fear only your fear, itself.”

“When a man has nothing, it is then that he is most able to raise himself up.”

“To cast away life without true purpose, is this not wrong?”

“Superstition is like a magnet: it pulls you in the direction of your belief.”